Untouchable
by Razgriz Ace
Summary: Beckett's stalemate with Bracken is unequivocally over. It's time to make a stand. (In cannon up through Belly of the Beast)
1. Prologue: Unthinkable

So I arrived late to the game on Castle, and now that I'm caught up with the show I thought I'd run with an idea. I don't own them, but you already knew that. Set in season 6. Cannon up too "Room 147" which is when I started writing.

* * *

Kate Beckett packed her small duffle bag quickly, throwing in everything that her brain, still addled with shock, could mark as essential. Clothes, her passport, all the clips she had for her spare piece, her bottle of Xanax, and the key to the storage garage where she kept her Softtail all got stuffed into together.

Moving quickly and pragmatically, she snatched her copy of "In a Hail of Bullets" off the half-bookcase by her bed and shook it out. The five one-hundred dollar bills that she kept there for emergencies fluttered on onto the bed, and she stuffed them into her pocket.

There were several plans piecing together in her brain. None of them were ideal. A few of them were flat out stupid. Still, keeping her mind set on working through the problem propelled her forward and kept the panic at bay.

She looked down at the dress she had worn to her rehearsal dinner, the blood was spattered upwards over the elegant navy material in a dark spotted wave. The edges of the stain were already starting to turn brown, a sign that she was taking too long. There could be others.

She ducked into the bathroom, and slipped into the jeans and the soft gray long sleeve shirt she had laid out before the shower that she had never gotten to take. She ran the tap and used a hand towel to clean the dots of blood spatter off her neck and face. The mirror was not showing her the same woman she had been a few hours ago. Purple lines were already visible at her throat where fingers had cut into her skin. The edge of her left eye was already a deep spotted red on it's way to being a matching purple. Fortunately, the swelling was minor, and while it throbbed in sync with her split lip adrenalin kept the pain from registering.

The changes went deeper that her injuries though. That excited, bordering on enchanted, woman from early had been replaced by a figure of the past, the angry and wounded soul she had spent the better part of two years trying not to be anymore. Kate closed her eyes and tried to let determination push her other self back again. It was a struggle.

It felt as if the sickest joke had just been played on her. The universe had lulled her into thinking she could be happy, that it wasn't wrong to have what she wanted, before doing it's very best to rip everything from her. Her breathing was labored as she had to actively remember to take air into her lungs. She was stronger than this, she knew that, but in that moment it was hard for her to remember.

She left the water running as she glided back into the bedroom for her cell phone. Using the small note pad from her case work she scribbled down a couple of crucial numbers, as another course of action began to reveal itself to her. She added the note pad to the sundry items in her bag. Then she held her thumb to the phone's center button as she returned to the bathroom, watched the little screen blink off, and snapped it in half. For good measure she dropped into the water pooling in the sink.

Her Sig, badge, and holster were still at the loft. There had been no reason to think she needed them tonight. The edge of the bed creaked as she sat to pull on the deep purple chucks Castle had bought her, insisting she should have at least one pair of sensible shoes. Next came the fastenings of the ankle holster for her off-duty piece.

The gun was still warm as she slid it into the holster and bile threatened to rise up her throat. She had to close her eyes again and take another few deep breathes. A rogue thought ran past in her mind that Dr. Burke would be extremely proud of how well she had fended off the panic attacks in the past twenty minutes.

Picking up the dufflebag she headed back into her kitchen and picked up the brown leather jacket that had been abandoned over the counter. Part of the counter had splintered where bullets had silently cut into the molding. She dusted the wood chips off the jacket and slipped it on.

It was far too big for her, and earlier that evening it had clashed horribly with her dress. Castle had made her take it with her when they parted after dinner. He said the weatherman had predicted the start of a minor cold snap, and while she had rolled her eyes at him she had not refused his chivalry. It smelled like a mix of the loft and his cologne. She could almost feel his arms wrapped around her, and she had to cover her mouth to hold back the cry that threaten to escape her.

The crest of emotion settled and as the tide receded she gathered herself. She could do this. She had yet to be beaten, and as her living room now evidenced, she still had quite a bit of fight in her. Her eyes fell to the corner on the room then. The shattered glass of the lamp and cracked wood of the end table she had crashed through ended right in front of her wedding dress which still hung undisturbed.

The dim light from the street lamps outside caught in the Austrian crystal of the gown and painted little stars across the body lying a few feet from it, adding a hint of illumination to the assassin's otherwise empty eyes.

Tearing her gaze away she stepped out into the hall, not bothering to lock the door behind her.

It was time to make a stand.

* * *

A/N: Thoughts? Also, if anyone wants to be my beta shoot me a pm. As my abysmal comma usage probably clued you in, I don't have one.


	2. Unchangeable

A/N: So even though I started writing this before "Belly of the Beast" that ep ended up fitting really nicely into the story I have planned. Enjoy!

* * *

The empty swing set looked ominous in the dark. Usually when he was this nervous Castle could feel his heart slamming into his ribs, now however, it was so firmly planted up in his throat that he just felt hollow.

Something happened. Something happened that was apparently bad enough to warrant getting his doorman to wake him up at two in the morning and pass him a note, rather than coming to see him or call him directly.

He hoped he was being paranoid. Beckett wasn't above playing games that would get his blood flowing, and maybe this was another hands on gift like on his fortieth Birthday. It could be she wanted to give him a little cloak and dagger outing as a wedding present. The thought did nothing to stop his hands from shaking.

He thought of her to steady himself. As it was, Rick had been unable to sleep anyway. The complete and unadulterated joy he felt at the thought that in a few hours Kate Beckett was going to be his wife had him, as his daughter had put it, "all aflutter". While he hadn't thought being "aflutter" sounded particularly manly, he also hadn't been able to come up with a better word to explain the nervous excitement coursing through him.

There had been hesitance on his part before his nuptials with Meredith and Gina, the intense fear that maybe he was making a mistake, and now he realizes that down in the core of his being he knew both times he really wasn't committing to forever. The absence of those feelings tonight combined with his fluttering was how he knew.

Kate Beckett wasn't just different.

She was it.

Which is why she had him in knots at the moment. He should never have left her side.

After the rehearsal they had danced together, enjoying the vast balcony of their venue. She had leaned in, nipped at his lobe, and whispered, "I told you, third time's a charm." A caveman that hid in a corner of his mind nearly slung her over his shoulder and carried her home right then. He should have listened to his inner neanderthal.

He was fully under her spell after that. The dark sleeveless evening dress she had on accentuated everything he loved about her body, hugging the best curves and showcasing her fabulous legs to the point where he had actually drooled on himself a little. The worst part was that she had known she was turning heads and she had teased him with it. The lingering touches, the way she lowered her voice a half octave like she did in the bedroom, the heat in her gaze, wound him up, causing the desire to spindle tightly inside of him.

He was nearly panting with need as the night had come to a close. However, he had chosen not to tempt fate. It was after all bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.

She hadn't made it easy for him and his irrationality. Mid way through the night she had begun looking at him more and more like a lioness ready to pounce. As they had walked out together she had denounced the pre-wedding superstition and whispered several colorful suggestions as to how they should continue the evening. He had made a helpless choking noise and changed the subject by offering her his coat. As he flagged her a taxi she had pulled him into an indecently long kiss and he almost lost his resolve.

Staring dumbly he had stuttered goodnight to her. Clearly amused, she had patted him on the cheek and as she slipped into the cab added, "Guess we'll save it for the honeymoon."

A God damned idiot. That's what he was.

He got to the swings, and was startled as a car parked several yards away came to life. It rolled up the street a little closer to the playground and flashed its brights. Castle tucked his hands into his pockets. His right ran along the lining of the denim until he felt the cool handle of his fiance's service pistol, and he calmed slightly. She would make endless fun of his reaction if this turned out to be another prank, but his overactive imagination had kept him alive thus far and he was not sorry for it.

The car's passenger side window rolled down and Castle found himself looking at Esposito in the driver's seat.

"Bro, get in. We got a problem."

Castle slipped in the vehicle and Javi hit the gas before the door was even completely closed.

"Where's Beckett?" Castle choked.

"Taking you there now," he gave a side glance to the writer. "She's alright," he said, waving a hand to dismiss Castle's worst fear. "Got a little roughed up, but you know Beckett, she's a tough cookie."

"The toughest. But what the hell's going on?" The detective didn't take his eyes off the road this time, and Castle got the distinct feeling that Javier didn't want to answer him, and anger began pushing out the fear. "Dammit, I'm supposed to be getting married in a few hours. What happened?" he demanded.

Castle had used the phrase, "his blood ran cold" plenty of times in his novels. It might have been a bit cheap as far as word choices go, but audiences understood it and it was an efficient way to set a tone. Yet despite his intimacy with it, it wasn't until that very second that he understood the feeling. Not until he heard the word that came out of Esposito did he know what it felt like to be chilled right down to your marrow. The next two syllables froze his heart.

"Bracken."

"He sent someone to give her a beating?"

"He sent someone to kill her," Espo said, shaking his head. "Beckett got the goon," he added before Castle could ask, "Shot him in her living room."

"Jesus." His heart stay high in his throat, beating quick as a humming bird.

"I know bro. I know."

"How'd she contact you?"

"Climbed up my back alley fire escape. Sent me to go get you," he checked the rear view mirror then. "She was afraid they were watching your place. I hope you had the good sense to sneak out."

"I'm not actually a dumb ass you know. But how bad are we talking here?"

"Worse than it's been. The guy laying in Beckett's living room? She's seen him before, at Vulcan Simmons' compound."

"Shit. Shit!" he punched the glove box in frustration. "Why now?" Castle wondered aloud. "He saved her life before. She hasn't touched her mother's case in over-" he trailed off a new idea coming to him. "Someone leaked what Beckett saw when she was trying to meet with Lazarus! He knows she put the cops on to Future Forward. He must also suspect she doesn't actually have a copy of Montgomery's file. He wouldn't have risked tipping their stalemate otherwise."

Despite everything Esposito smirked and shook his head. "That was nearly word for word what she put together."

Castle pulled the note the doorman had given him out of his pocket. 'Zihuatanejo. 30 minutes.' was written in Beckett's careful loops. Clearly a thoughtfully crafted clue just for him, a movie reference, a Stephen King reference, and an old case reference all in one. It was practically a synonym for their swing set.

He leaned back heavily in the passenger's seat, glad that even when everything was getting yanked out from under him, some things stayed the same.

"Yeah. We do that sometimes."

* * *

Either stress had him hyper aware of his surroundings or the secret tunnel into the Old Haunt had grown a lot more mold since the last time Castle had been down there.

"Remind me to get this renovated for the next time we're hiding from a homicidal politician," he harrumphed, pinching his nose.

Espo swatted him in the back of his shoulder with the heavy MagLite. "Seriously?"

"Ow! Hey! I don't begrudge you you're coping mechanisms."

They made it up the rest of the corridor and climbed through the wall into the bar's hidden basement.

Air entered Castle's lungs properly for the first time as he took in his fiance sitting at the card table in the center of the room. He had moved his poker nights into the speakeasy recently. The depression era decor added a touch of atmosphere his friends envied, and he liked making Patterson jealous. She looked out of place at the empty table, absently stacking and unstacking a line of green chips left out accidentally

Her head snapped up as they entered and she stood just as quickly. She and Castle were holding on to one another before he could draw another breath.

"I'll give you two a minute," Javi said, averting his eyes from the intimate reunion and slipping back into the passageway.

Castle pulled back and gently examined her black eye, his thumb ran gently over the bottom of her busted lip. A dark satisfaction filled him, knowing that the man who did this to her was dead.

"Javi fill you in?" she asked.

He nodded. "You okay?"

She gave a slight nod of her own, "It looks worse than it feels."

"That's good, because it looks pretty bad love."

"You should see the other guy."

She was grasping wildly for a bright side, trying to lighten to mood, and it made his heart clench. "I shouldn't have sent you over there tonight. You should have been home in bed with me."

"Stop. Babe, don't go down 'what if' road. It'll turn you around and around and we'll just end up back here with the same problem. This wasn't your fault."

"Still…" he trailed off.

She took his hand and lead him over to the brown leather sofa in the corner. It clashed with the rest of the room, but it was plush and comfortable. Grisham couldn't hold his liquor like he used to and the sofa had been an easier solution than trying to carry the jerk up the stairs after every game.

He sank into the corner of the couch and they angled toward each other. He was suddenly aware of how very tired he was, and how exhausted she looked.

"Smart hide out, even if it was a hike to get up here from the tunnel."

"It was the only safe place I could think of. We can't be sure who Bracken is watching, or whose phone he tapped."

"And if someone the precinct is feeding him information we really don't have many options."

The thought didn't hang in the air as long as he thought it would. She rested both her hands on his right knee and took a long breath. "I've spent the past few hours trying to figure out what to do," she told him, "My first instinct was to push you away." He stiffened. She shook her head, a signal for him to dismiss the thought. Still, it seemed as though his stomach no longer had a bottom.

"That would have been sufficiently terrible." His fingers covered hers on his knee. This small connection calmed him slightly, and he managed to stop bouncing his nervous leg in the way he knew she hated.

"I knew that if he'd wanted both of us dead he wouldn't have waited to get me alone. He's being careful, trying to minimize collateral damage. So I thought maybe I could call off the wedding, and hit the road alone. I had a whole speech thought up for how you would be better off, how you would be safer without me."

Castle swallowed down the emotion gathering up in his throat, the pain of that alternate future gripping him. "I'm really _really_ glad you changed your mind," he said.

"Since we've met when have either of us been better off without the other? I couldn't run from you. I wasted too much time doing that before." She held his gaze, and a sad smile rose on her lips. "Plus, would it have even worked?"

"I'd have never stopped looking for you."

"That's what I figured. We're partners and I can't make decisions like that on my own, just for my own peace of mind. It's not my life with which to bargain."

Her eyes dropped to the floor. The silence began to extend. There was a nearly imperceptible stiffness in her shoulders and something slightly forced about the rhythm to her breathing. Her features were perfectly schooled, and that's what told him just how terrified she really was right then. Her head tilted back up to look at him, her eyes begging him to say something.

He leaned his forehead against hers. "I love you for not ending that sentence with a preposition," he finally said.

She let out a heavy breath and strangled half-laugh of relief and all but threw herself back into his arms. She buried her face in his neck and he held her tightly, as if gravity would turn upside down with the rest of their world and take her with.

"Castle, I have a plan," she told him after a few minutes of just holding on. She pulled away to meet his gaze. The look in her eyes broke his heart a little, her cool determination clouded together with something warmer, sadder. "It's ridiculous, and dangerous, and maybe also a little stupid but it also just might work."

"That's totally how I roll."

She kissed him then, slow and deliberate. He slipped a hand into her hair and used his mouth to convey how grateful he was that she was alive. She was wearing a genuine smile when the kiss ended, and hope rose in him as he saw it flare in her eyes. They were a little flush, and a little breathless, and somehow carrying much lighter souls than the previous minute.

"I know you trust me. Can you do as I say until I can put all the pieces together?" she asked.

He didn't like where this was headed- he'd never been very good at staying in the car after all- but he also couldn't deny her. "Anything."

"It's going to take quite a bit of acting."

"You have met my mother right?"

Her grin became infectious then.

"Okay, so part one of the plan happens right here," she gestured to the door. "Espo," she called loudly. A few moments Javier popped his head in from the passage.

"You guys ready?"

Beckett nodded. Standing again, she pulled Castle up with her.

"Ready for what?" Castle asked.

Kate turned back to him. "Did you know Esposito is ordained?"

"Huh?"

"It was during my second tour," Esposito explained "You run into a lot of messed up stuff in special forces. Sometimes where a guy was truck down is where we had to bury him, and as we were usually in the middle of nowhere we never had a chaplain. I took the ordination course online so I could preside over funerals, even makeshift ones."

Kate ran a hand up Castle's arm resting it intimately at his collar bone. "I know this isn't what we pictured or what we had planned, but in case things go to hell in the next few weeks I want to at least have this."

"I'm not sure I understand," he said.

She leaned into him the way she had done after dinner earlier that night, her voice barely above a whisper. "It's simple. Javier is going marry us right now," she paused, her eyes searching his, "and then tomorrow I'm going to leave you at the altar."

* * *

A/N: Did you read it? If you're down here I think you read it. Click that comment button. Come on. I know you want to. Click it. :)


	3. Unstoppable

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and inquired about updates. You're all lovely, and I appreciate the support. I'll try to get the next chapter out much faster. I got sidetracked with work and the other Castle oneshot _Cosmology_, that I put out (*cough* shameless plug *cough)

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He was looking at her like she was crazy, but really that was to be expected. She knew she was giving him a lot to process. Even Castle's imagination had its limits.

He opened his mouth to say something, but only a small, "-eh" came out. He closed his jaw and tried again, only this time he made a noise that made it sound like he had completely lost his voice. If he'd been eating, she would have been concerned that he was choking.

He pinched his lips together and his eyes shifted up to the ceiling in thought. One minute extended into two and she was surprised that she managed to breathe at all during those seconds.

"Well okay then," he said suddenly.

"Really?!" she blurted. She hadn't meant to sound so surprised.

"What do you mean really? This is your idea."

"I know, but I thought I would have to convince you. You just looked at me the way you did when I told you I preferred Nebula nine to Star Trek."

"Yeah, well I'm allowed a knee jerk reaction given the circumstances," he defended. There was a pause while he considered her. "You think he'll back off if we make him think you've disappeared?."

"Yes."

He started thinking out loud. "We make it look like we have no contact, like you really did up and leave. Then our family might be safe."

She loved the fact that he had just said "our" and she was so relieved that he was in sync with her on this. There was never any doubt in her that he would still want to marry her, even with everything going to hell, but she had been afraid he was going to insist they runaway together, use his money and contacts to hide. That he hadn't, that he understood it was time to make their stand and end this, it meant everything.

In the hours after she left her apartment, a dead assassin on her floor, she had tried to figure out the best way to leave Castle so that he wouldn't try to follow. She kept telling herself that he hadn't signed on for this, that it wasn't fair to him, and it was far too dangerous.

She rode the subway in a loop, lost in thought. Unconsciously, she had gone to switch trains and ended up at the stop nearest their swing set. Feeling safe enough, she had gone to street level and found herself at the park.

The last time she had been to the swings in the middle of the night she had made the most important decision of her life. She had chosen Castle, picked a future with him over her mother's case. Back in that same setting, sans the rain this time, she had realized that from that very first night she had gone to him, he had known full well what she was involved in, and he had still wanted her. She had chosen him, and he had chosen her. There was no going back on that just because she was afraid of the danger, afraid of losing him.

She stopped that particular train of thought to watch him pace a contemplative lap around the room. His body was still tense, but with every pace around the room she saw a little bit of the bounce return to his step.

"This is perfect," he said. He began ticking instances off on his fingers, "Think about it. The first time we kissed we were undercover trying to save our best friends from getting murdered. The first time I told you I loved you, you were dying in my arms with an assassins bullet in your heart. The first time we slept together was just hours after that same assassin tried to throw you off a roof. And the first time _you_ told _me_ you loved me you were minutes away from being vaporized by a psycho's booby-trap." He wiggled the four fingers he was holding up. "Maybe the whole cake and flowers thing was a little over ambitious on our part. This is much more us."

"Getting secretly married in an old speakeasy, hours after a corrupt senator ordered a failed hit on my life?"

He held up his thumb to count off number five. "Absolutely."

She pulled Castle down to her again, kissing him hard, making her own toes curl in delight. There wasn't any possible way for her to be more in love with this man. The idea that she had even entertained the idea of a life without him utterly astounded her. Together they were unstoppable. Her fingers found the hair at the nape of his neck, and he wrapped an arm around her waist, strong and maybe just a little possessive.

Esposito let out an uncomfortable cough to remind them he was standing right there. Kate untangled herself from her fiance.

"Sorry," she apologized to the other detective. She wasn't. She backed away a little to address Castle again. "We get married now and then I have some things to arrange. I'll need a week. Maybe two. Then we go on the offensive."

"I - I don't know that I like that idea," he said. She could tell he was treading lightly, trying not to be openly aggressive to the idea, but she could see the concern etching it's way into the corners of his eyes.

She ran a hand up his arm and to the back of his neck, resting it there for reassurance. "Hey, look at me. I'm not running," she promised. "This isn't the ideal plan, but it will be easier for me to stay under the radar and to get everything rolling if I'm alone. I'm not going straight at anyone. I know you want to have my back, I want that too, but can you trust me to take care of myself for this short while?"

He stared at her sadly for a long moment. "I do trust you," he said.

"Good. I need you here, playing dumb. Bracken really only has a peripheral understanding of what you know. They'll find a way to spin Vulcan's dead goon against me, so we use that. Make it look like you think I'm guilty, and that you believe I killed that man and ran off."

She felt his shoulders relax a little as she caressed his neck and upper back. "You want me to put on the jilted lover show?" he asked.

She put her other hand on his chest and leaned into him conspiratorially. "So that they give you a god damned Tony."

A wicked smile rose on his face and her heart loosened when she saw a hint of his playful twinkle return.

Suddenly, the door began scraping again and the pair separated. Before Kate could even reach for her own piece, she saw Castle level her Sig at the intruder.

A very confused Detective Ryan held his hands up. He was rumpled and bleary eyed, clearly having been woken as unceremoniously as the rest of them.

"Whoa, non-combatant," Esposito said.

"Kevin?! What the hell are you doing here?" Beckett asked.

He point to Esposito his hands still up, "He invited me."

Kate slid her hand around Castle's wrist and eased the gun down, she slid it from his hand and put it down on the card table. They were all a little high strung and loaded weapons didn't really need to be added into the mix.

"We've legalities to consider here," Espo explained. "If you want this wedding to be legal, we need a witness."

Beckett pinched the brim of her nose, this wasn't part of the plan. Though just as quickly as the anger flared it faded. She would have had to bring Ryan into this sooner or later, but he had a baby now, and she had been hoping it would be later.

"Javi gave me the cliff notes," Ryan said, his tone was firm but his eyes were soft. She could see him staking his claim in the room, letting them all know he was a part of it. "You okay Beckett?"

She nodded. "I will be," she said.

Ryan came over to hug her. He let her go and then gave Castle a friendly slap on the back. "Not the best circumstances, but what do you say we get you two hitched?"

Kate looked at Castle who nodded a little over-enthusiastically. He looked like a puppy who realized he could stop chasing his tail because it was already attached to him. Her mood shifted, and an overwhelming girlish excitement bubbled up, foaming up over the horror of earlier that night. He was going to be her husband.

"Okay Castle you stand here," Espo directed, pointing with his left hand and then gesturing to Kate with his right, "Beckett you stand there, Ryan get on Castle's right."

Kate's heart quickened as she stepped to Castle's side. It was possibly the most important five feet she had ever moved.

"Now let's get started," Espo said, taking a little black book from his back pocket. "I'll be brief with the pleasantries. We know why we're gathered here."

"Yeah, you two finally got your act together and put us out of our second hand misery," Ryan quipped.

Espo shot him a look, "Yo peanut gallery, this is a wedding."

Ryan put a hand up in apology and took a step back. He gestured for Espo to continue.

"As I was saying, we're gathered here because you two have fought harder than any two good people should have to in order to be together. It's my honor to seal that bond as permanent."

It was downright sentimental coming from Espo, but she supposed if there was ever a time for it it was right then.

"I know no one here objects to this so we'll skip that part," Espo said and flipped a page in the little book. "Here we go then. Do you Richard Castle, take Katherine Beckett to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, as long as you both shall live?"

The words came instantly. "I do."

His eyes were shining as he held her gaze. It healed a part of Kate's soul knowing that that look was for her.

"And do you Katherine Beckett take Richard Castle to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, as long as you both shall live?"

"Of course I do."

They leaned in to embrace one another, but Esposito suck his arm out to block them from kissing. "Excuse me, but there is an order to this," he scolded. "Do you have the rings?"

Castle's face fell. "Alexis has them," he nearly pouted.

"It's alright." Kate quickly took the necklace out from beneath her t-shirt and unclasped it, slipping her engagement ring out from where it rested next to her mother's ring. She put the chain back around her neck and handed the ring to Castle.

"I'm the writer," he began, "I'm supposed to have the words. But it just doesn't seem like there are any that are sufficient. I've written five novels about us, and I could write a hundred more and never do proper justice to how incredible we are together."

He took a long breath to steady himself. She could feel the nervous energy coming off of him in waves. It was more than a little adorable.

"You did the two most incredible things for me that anyone has ever done," he continued. "You said no, and you made me wait. Back when we met, I was used to getting what I wanted and you absolutely had my number. I was an ass. If you hadn't brushed me off, hadn't made me work for you, that Rick Castle might not have stuck around long enough to fall in love. It's a scary thought, because the version of me standing here now is a thousand times a better man for loving you and being loved by you." He reached out to cup her cheek then, and only then did she realize the tears that were falling. He gently brushed one away with his thumb. He slipped the engagement ring back on her finger, "So for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, for better or worse, forever and always, all of me is yours."

A tear trickled down his cheek now and she let out a breathy laugh how maudlin they were being. She reached out and brushed it off his cheek and wiped her own eyes again.

She offered him a watery smile and took his left hand with both of hers. She had to find the words somewhere. How do you tell a man he's your world without it sounding trite? How do you thank him for venturing into the lion's den with you. "I'm not good at this. You know I'm not good at this," she said, frustrated with herself.

"There a script in here if you want, Beckett," Espo offered quietly, holding up the little book.

She waved him off, and Castle gave a little chuckle. He squeezed her hand in encouragement and right then it hit her that she didn't have a ring for him either. An idea struck her and with it everything she needed to convey. She let go of his hand and undid her watch, the words slowly coming as she did so. "I told you once why I wear this everyday," she began, holding up the accessory that had belonged to her father. "It's my keepsake of strength, my reminder that battles waged in love can be won." She took his hand again, "You are my reminder now. I don't worry anymore that darkness will swallow me one day. It simply can't if you're here to light the way. Our journey to this point wasn't simple, but loving you is easier than anything I've ever done. So through the good and the bad, wherever the path takes us, you have my heart, for always." She fastened the watch around his wrist, and kissed his knuckled in conclusion.

"And now, by the power vested in me by Universal Life Church online, I hereby pronounce you husband and wife. You may-oh well…" Espo trailed off.

They were in each others arms before the proclamation was finished. This time they ignored his pointed coughs for much longer.

* * *

A/N: So there you have it. Another big of the delay on this chapter came from not wanting to write their vows. There are about 8 terrible drafts of that scene on my computer. LOL :) So I hope that one read well.

Also, insert my standard apology for typos. I'm without a Beta and can only re-read/proof my own drafts so many times before going cross-eyed. ;)

Leave me a review all you beautiful people who got this far down the page.


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